Ancient Aliens on the History Channel - WOW - Think Atheist2015-08-02T20:56:41Zhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/forum/topics/ancient-aliens-on-the-history?commentId=1982180%3AComment%3A1051697&x=1&feed=yes&xn_auth=noTo briefly answer your questi…tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2012-02-10:1982180:Comment:10516972012-02-10T13:24:27.298ZTex in the Cityhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/JamesTyler
<p>To briefly answer your question "Why have aliens always looked close to the same throughout the existence of humanity. Even in ancient caves separated by thousands of miles?"</p>
<p>How do you know they are drawings of aliens? More likely they are just stylized images of humans. Perhaps humans in costumes for some ceremony. Or maybe they were just being creative. Ask a child to draw an alien and you might get a lot of different ideas of what that is, but I bet if you ask them to draw "a…</p>
<p>To briefly answer your question "Why have aliens always looked close to the same throughout the existence of humanity. Even in ancient caves separated by thousands of miles?"</p>
<p>How do you know they are drawings of aliens? More likely they are just stylized images of humans. Perhaps humans in costumes for some ceremony. Or maybe they were just being creative. Ask a child to draw an alien and you might get a lot of different ideas of what that is, but I bet if you ask them to draw "a spaceman" or an "alien coming off of a spaceship" that most of the children are going to draw something humanoid, because on this planet only humans are capable of technology greater than using a stick to scrape termites out of a hole in a tree for food.</p>
<p>For the record I don't purport to be a child psychologist, but I was a child at one time.</p> Show me a shred of evidence t…tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2012-02-10:1982180:Comment:10512132012-02-10T03:02:40.666ZHeather Spoonheimhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/HeatherSpoonheim
<p>Show me a shred of evidence that aliens have visited this planet and I'll believe in it. If you want to believe in invisible boogiemen with no evidence, then go ahead - it just puts you in the category of skypilot with all the other theist types.</p>
<p>Show me a shred of evidence that aliens have visited this planet and I'll believe in it. If you want to believe in invisible boogiemen with no evidence, then go ahead - it just puts you in the category of skypilot with all the other theist types.</p> It's a fairly common straw ma…tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2012-02-09:1982180:Comment:10509342012-02-09T23:16:22.638ZDave Ghttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/DaveG
It's a fairly common straw man put forth by those people who have difficulty accepting a different type of worldview than a religious one. They assume that everyone has to be religious about something, and try to turn 'not believing on God' into a faith position when it's no different than their non-belief in flying pigs.<br />
<br />
It's also often combined with the claim that all atheists claim to be 100% certain that there is no god, which cannot be proven. While gnostic atheists do exist, they're a…
It's a fairly common straw man put forth by those people who have difficulty accepting a different type of worldview than a religious one. They assume that everyone has to be religious about something, and try to turn 'not believing on God' into a faith position when it's no different than their non-belief in flying pigs.<br />
<br />
It's also often combined with the claim that all atheists claim to be 100% certain that there is no god, which cannot be proven. While gnostic atheists do exist, they're a definite minority. Much more common are atheists who do not claim certainty. I can dismiss the vast majori…tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2012-02-09:1982180:Comment:10511192012-02-09T23:09:59.971ZJaredhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/JaredScottFsh
<p>I can dismiss the vast majority of sightings based on tricks of the eye, mis-identification or hoax but there are cases that have many factors to them where after looking at all the evidence together it seems most possible that the object is under intelligent control. One of the best incidents that really makes you question things I've read was about the 1976 Terhan UFO incident. There is a decent general wikipedia article about it for some general info but the best direct account I've found…</p>
<p>I can dismiss the vast majority of sightings based on tricks of the eye, mis-identification or hoax but there are cases that have many factors to them where after looking at all the evidence together it seems most possible that the object is under intelligent control. One of the best incidents that really makes you question things I've read was about the 1976 Terhan UFO incident. There is a decent general wikipedia article about it for some general info but the best direct account I've found was in the book I mentioned earlier from General Parviz Jafari one of the F4 pilots who was sent to intercept the object. It gets to a point to where it's very hard to ignore the info. It seems at least in this case and in a very and I mean very small number of cases the most logical and likely thing is that there was an object under intelligent control able to out preform any known man made aircraft observed. All I know is if I tried to fire an Aim-9 more then once from my F-4 and suddenly my planes ablity to fire was disabled during both attempts as if at will I'd be scared shitless about what it was. I just highly recommend you read about it at the very least. We just have to be careful that we don't set ourselves up to where we are skeptical to point of putting our fingers in our ears and screaming loudly when someone reports something. </p> The simplest reason that athe…tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2012-02-09:1982180:Comment:10511162012-02-09T22:41:58.992ZDave Ghttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/DaveG
The simplest reason that atheism is not a religion is that at its core, atheism is nothing more than someone saying "I don't accept your claim that there is a god/gods". Nothing more. No teachings, no rules to follow or rituals to perform, no mandated beliefs or official dogma. It's really no different than not believing in leprechauns or pixies.<br />
<br />
You don't even have to reject the claim for good reasons. While many of us reject the claim that a god exists due to the lack of evidence, there are…
The simplest reason that atheism is not a religion is that at its core, atheism is nothing more than someone saying "I don't accept your claim that there is a god/gods". Nothing more. No teachings, no rules to follow or rituals to perform, no mandated beliefs or official dogma. It's really no different than not believing in leprechauns or pixies.<br />
<br />
You don't even have to reject the claim for good reasons. While many of us reject the claim that a god exists due to the lack of evidence, there are those who disbelieve for irrational reasons. The Raelians are an excellent example. They don't believe in gods because they believe that all of the myths about gods were caused by visiting aliens who genetically engineered humans. There's no evidence for that either, of course. So, technically they are an atheistic religion, but the religion does not come from their atheism but from the beliefs, rituals, dogmas and such of their alien-worship. Ryan, unexplainable things ar…tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2012-02-09:1982180:Comment:10511082012-02-09T22:06:51.454ZWillson Stonerhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/WillsonStoner
<p>Ryan, unexplainable things are not evidence. Things that explain the unexplainable are evidence. As for the phrase "religion of atheism", I wouldn't go there if I were you.</p>
<p>Ryan, unexplainable things are not evidence. Things that explain the unexplainable are evidence. As for the phrase "religion of atheism", I wouldn't go there if I were you.</p> This may be news to you, Ryan…tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2012-02-09:1982180:Comment:10509122012-02-09T21:42:22.215ZDave Ghttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/DaveG
This may be news to you, Ryan, but the atmosphere has oxygen in it. This is what allows torches to burn. Shocking, I know.<br />
<br />
And yes, if the dog was seen, that would be evidence that the dog exists. Got any evidence of your aliens? We're waiting.<br />
<br />
No doubt you could provide tons of stories of alien encounters. I can provide tons of stories about encounters with bigfoot. In neither case are personal ancedotes considered to be evidence. Anyone, as you say, can say anything. It's evidence that…
This may be news to you, Ryan, but the atmosphere has oxygen in it. This is what allows torches to burn. Shocking, I know.<br />
<br />
And yes, if the dog was seen, that would be evidence that the dog exists. Got any evidence of your aliens? We're waiting.<br />
<br />
No doubt you could provide tons of stories of alien encounters. I can provide tons of stories about encounters with bigfoot. In neither case are personal ancedotes considered to be evidence. Anyone, as you say, can say anything. It's evidence that matters.<br />
<br />
You seem to have a strong disdain for sciencce and knowledge, particularly when it disagrees with what you want to believe. Sadly, reality does not care about what you want to be true, only what is.<br />
<br />
You mention the bacteria found in meteorites. If you read up on the subject, you'd find that that claim is highly speculative and is not widely acccepted as the science behind the claim is not strong. The scale difference between the patterns in the meteorite and the Earth bacteria they were being compared against is far larger than reasonable and similar patterns can be caused by non-biological means. This does not mean that they are not fossilized traces of bacteria, just that the evidence is not strong enough to justify the claim that they are.<br />
<br />
Looking back over the posts, I think that it is less that you have a disdain for science than it is that you seem to have both a much lower bar for standards of evidence in regards to what is possible/likely and an irrationally high standard for what is known. You seem to be willing to accept anything as evidence for what might be but require a 100% certainty for what is known. Given the known unreliability…tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2012-02-09:1982180:Comment:10509092012-02-09T21:30:21.718ZDave Ghttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/DaveG
Given the known unreliability of eyewitnesses and the lack of objective evidence (videos that are not so blurred as to be useless, non-terrestrial alloys from debris, visiting aliens saying hi, etc), it is far more likely that the unexplained sightings are simply unexplained, not alien spacecraft. As I mentioned earlier, the proper response to somethingwe don't know the answer to is "We don't know", not "It can't be explained, therefore it was aliens"<br />
<br />
I certainly support people looking into…
Given the known unreliability of eyewitnesses and the lack of objective evidence (videos that are not so blurred as to be useless, non-terrestrial alloys from debris, visiting aliens saying hi, etc), it is far more likely that the unexplained sightings are simply unexplained, not alien spacecraft. As I mentioned earlier, the proper response to somethingwe don't know the answer to is "We don't know", not "It can't be explained, therefore it was aliens"<br />
<br />
I certainly support people looking into the causes of unexplained sightings, but it's not rational to jump to the conclusion of 'alien spacecraft' without evidence to support it. We might as well say it was Eris sowing some discord by making people see things. while I would agree the vast…tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2012-02-09:1982180:Comment:10508392012-02-09T20:13:29.487ZJaredhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/JaredScottFsh
<p>while I would agree the vast majority of ufo's can be explained there are some number of cases that cannot be. Now whether aliens are sometimes visiting earth for one reason or another I do not know but its irresponsible to just dismiss the many sightings made by solid witnesses. I believe that the subject deserves valid study and shouldn't just be whitewashed like in the past. The biggest problem is that there is so much garbage out there to sift through that it hurts the cause of…</p>
<p>while I would agree the vast majority of ufo's can be explained there are some number of cases that cannot be. Now whether aliens are sometimes visiting earth for one reason or another I do not know but its irresponsible to just dismiss the many sightings made by solid witnesses. I believe that the subject deserves valid study and shouldn't just be whitewashed like in the past. The biggest problem is that there is so much garbage out there to sift through that it hurts the cause of investigating UFOS. My suggestion would be to look into the cometa report which was written by some pretty intelligent folks with well respected backgrounds. Another suggestion is to read good book on the subject is UFOS, Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials go on the record. </p> I said IF an alien spacecraft…tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2012-02-09:1982180:Comment:10508352012-02-09T19:28:49.793ZWillson Stonerhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/WillsonStoner
<p>I said IF an alien spacecraft were found it would cause a lot of rethinking. IF. Nothing has been found. Nothing at all. Not one tiny scrap of physical evidence has ever been found of any extraterrestrial visit. If the fire and the light stuff is true why would that be? Do you know? No. No, you don't. So what are you trying to say? Am I supposed to come to some conclusion here? Based on what?</p>
<p>I said IF an alien spacecraft were found it would cause a lot of rethinking. IF. Nothing has been found. Nothing at all. Not one tiny scrap of physical evidence has ever been found of any extraterrestrial visit. If the fire and the light stuff is true why would that be? Do you know? No. No, you don't. So what are you trying to say? Am I supposed to come to some conclusion here? Based on what?</p>